


Yet Another Serial Killer

by asherall



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Gen, Serial Killers, Virus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24073267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asherall/pseuds/asherall
Summary: Seventeen bodies; nursing home; death by virus; anonymous tip; one month apart. Five times.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	1. Introduction

It happened again, just a few weeks after the first. Seventeen dead bodies found in a nursing home. Their deaths were blamed on the virus that was sweeping the world. The only reason these bodies were found was because of an anonymous tip.

Another month after that: seventeen bodies; nursing home; virus; anonymous tip. That was a pattern; third time’s the charm. Someone noticed. But he couldn’t get any information beyond what had been in the news. He only wanted to know a little bit more about who had died. Or even just the names. It didn’t matter. The incidents had a few things in common, sure, but it wasn’t enough to get anybody to listen to him. When he said something to other people - or was complaining about why nobody was listening to him - they told him that it was just a coincidence. His retort was the same every time: the universe is rarely so lazy.

The pattern went silent for a few months. Perhaps, he thought, whoever was behind the killings had done all they wanted to do. They had taken care of their targets - all of whom had to have something in common, but he couldn’t get information. Privacy, someone had said. That reasoning was bull, he thought; still, the information couldn’t be found anywhere. Whenever he thought he was about to find something more than what he knew, it disappeared. The computer would crash; the source would suddenly close; whatever he had been about to find was gone, never to be located again. He would complain; someone would tell him that it was a coincidence - or a sign that he should give up. Coincidences, to him, were not a thing. These incidents were linked, and somebody didn’t want anyone to find out why.

</>

“Again,” Reid said to the empty space in his apartment. “It can’t be a coincidence. Serial killers thrive off of patterns. Seventeen bodies; nursing home; death by virus; anonymous tip; one month apart. Five times.”

But he resisted the temptation to call up Garcia. It wasn’t the right time; all of them had other work to do, and Garcia had more than most. They were on the brink of figuring out another serial killer - another Zoom call would hopefully do the trick. Besides, it could all just be a coincidence. And, perhaps, some of the reports were wrong. Maybe the body count was different; maybe some of their deaths weren’t because of the virus.


	2. Nothing

He soon discovered that the pattern hadn’t gone silent - the monthly killings were continued, though an anonymous tip wasn’t noted every time. In particular, there was an article from a small-town newspaper that gave the names of twelve people from a nursing home who died of the virus. An anonymous tip hadn’t been noted, though. He hastily screenshot the article, making sure he had every bit of information there was before - 

The page refreshed.

A colorful, ad-filled page replaced the newspaper article. It was most likely a virus, he decided, and closed the window. But his screenshots still existed. He had the obituaries of twelve of the seventeen victims; not as good as the full seventeen, but it was more information than before.

Oren Barajas was the founder of the Hiking Club, and authored a book on local trails.

Selena Payne was a violist who was a member of a local orchestra for sixty years.

Jasper Mahoney was a cellist in the same orchestra.

Jannie Leon & Nina Matthews ran a bakery for seventy years.

Frederick Crawford was a painter.

Marlin Ayala taught physics at a high school.

John Blair was a cheese-maker.

Mark Foster was an architect.

Rachel Barron worked at the daycare.

Dwight Barry was a history teacher.

Corinne Hansen “had a plain but happy life.”

He whacked his fist on the table. There had to be something connecting these people - or at least, something that connected them to the previous deaths, and something connecting them to a single person. But there had to be something he could find with this information. He would stare at his notes for a few hours before passing out on the dining room table, then waking up in the early morning for what he thought was a goldmine.

Everybody had some social media or internet presence, as his dreams pointed out. And social media should be a goldmine. He wasn’t tech-savvy enough to quickly go through their social media pages; at least it was Saturday.

It took a few hours of comparing friends, followers, and reposts to find a few connections between them. They followed a few town-related things; he didn’t think much of that. And a few other celebrities and political figures. But this series of connections wasn’t actually leading him anywhere. Just a pile of odds and ends that listed things that anybody else could have in common. Nothing was panning out.

</>

“They’re mercy killings,” Reid decided, still talking to a wall in his apartment. “That explains part of why they’re dying, though it doesn’t explain the number of deaths or the waiting time. Some mercy killings aren’t as specific as this unsub’s are.

“Seventeen killings a month; with exactly a month between the anonymous tips. The tip says that they want to take credit for the killings, so they’re doing this for attention. Having a group of people killing these people would be easier, but then there would be no need for the month waiting period.

“But why seventeen? It has some associations with death and misfortune, most commonly in Italy. The followers of Pythagoras held strong distaste for it, as it was between the quadrilaterals that sixteen and eighteen make. He also avoided beans, amongst other supposed dietary restrictions. And, of course, the Pythagorean Theorem; the one piece of geometry we all remember.

“Now: if these seventeen people each were killed on the seventeenth of the month, we would have a pattern. Or if the anonymous report came on the seventeenth. That would also explain why the killer waited a month.”

He sighs, then picks up his phone. “Garcia? If you aren’t busy right now, I need you to find some information for me.”

Garcia, luckily enough, was able to access more information than most, and quickly put together a list of people killed before looking for connections between the victims. There wasn’t anything obvious - no similar friends or followers; not much of anything that they could find online. But they received word of another case to solve, and had to work on that. It wasn’t that this killer was unimportant - it was that there were other killers that they could find. And this could have been false information, coincidences.


	3. next

It took a few more days of searching around to draw the obvious link between the locations of the nursing homes. They all took place in the original colonies - New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Connecticut (though that small detail was probably unimportant). They were in places that had a decently high Italian population. So he was looking for an Italian person - probably a man - who lived on the East Coast. Because that's specific.

Even worse was that that didn’t explain the killings at all, but it gave him some idea of who was killing them. It was going to be him who found this killer - him who presented him and the evidence to the police.

He checked the time and slammed the computer shut. The explanation for the killings would be left to stew in his brain for another day; it was time to leave for work.

</>

The phone rang just past midnight. Reid stirs and glares at his phone. He wants to press decline - god he’s tired - but he remembers that she might have finally found some link between the killings and a man.

“Garcia.”

“Reid! I am so so so sorry to be calling you at this time of night - I wasn’t sure if you were awake. But you are now . . . and I think I found a link between their deaths.”

He turns on the lamp and grabs a pen and paper - best not to forget this before she finishes talking. “Go on . . .”

“So! They don’t have a connection to a specific person, but every person who died has a connection to similar people. These people were each bullied by seventeen people - either as individuals or in groups - and they were bullied because they loved medical science. Oddly enough, both the bullies and their victims shared a same deathly fear of needles - and I'm not talking about your everyday dislike of needles.”

“That’s pretty specific, but do you have a reason for why he kills seventeen people each time? Or someone who might be the unsub?”

She sighs.

“Ok. I’ll just get back to you later today.”


	4. plot

The next attack would be at a nursing home in Hudson, New Hampshire. The location struck him like lightning - it came out of thin air while he was at work and knew that that had to be where the attack was. He still didn’t know exactly who to look for, but it was a concrete location that could be used to find the killer.

But this was a random location that popped into his head; he could not figure out any rhyme or reason behind it.

Gut instinct?

No reason to really trust your gut. He could be wrong; this was just a whimsical fantasy.

But he could be right.

The debate continued for another minute before he came to a conclusion. This was useless. He was trying to live out some childish fantasy of being The One to solve a case without the help of a government agency. And it was a week until the next attack - no point in scurrying off to a random location just yet.

Either choice was one that he would regret. But not doing anything was the safer choice for him; less risk, no need to fear being illogical and wrong.

</>

Another Zoom meeting - they solved another case, but Reid and Garcia had one last one to present to them.

“Guys, Garcia and I have been working on another case - an unofficial one. I was paying attention to the news and began to find connections between a number of seemingly random deaths; we think that we know where the next set of deaths will occur. And who the unsub is.”

“His name is Giovanni Palestrina. He’s an Italian immigrant from about seventeen years ago, and is responsible for a number of deaths in nursing homes recently,” Garcia says, cutting off the team members who were about to speak. “His next attack will be in Hudson, New Hampshire.

They spend a few quick minutes laying out the rest of the information and plotting before deciding to send Reid and Morgan (backed by local police) to the nursing home to stop the man before he struck his next seventeen victims.


	5. conclusion

He turns on the news, remembering that the attack was supposed to occur yesterday. This time, the news agrees with his suspicions. Giovanni Palestrina planned an attack on a nursing home in Hudson, NH last night, only to be identified and apprehended by two FBI agents and the local police. He was responsible for a number of other deaths in the past few months.

In other words, he was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liked the premise of this more than how it played out.
> 
> Feedback/critique would be appreciated.


End file.
